Overwatch has recently made a huge change on the PTR which made a significant impact on the competitive play particularly in the Skill Ratings and Skill Tiers. The huge announcement was made by the game's Principal Designer, Scott Mercer which is their team's way of improving the current game system for the upcoming Season 3. The revamp of the skill calibration was primarily made due to the fact that Season 2 was a sight for terrible ranking system that left a lot of fans fairly disappointed.
So the question now is that, does the new Skill Rating and Skill Tiers a lot fairer and balanced? Let's find out.
Overwatch New Skill Rating and Tier Placement
Before we start, take note that the off-season downtime in between Season 2 and Season 3 will be significantly reduced to one week only. Moreover, Season 2 will end on November 24 which means that the following Season will officially start by December 1. Alongside this change is an in-game countdown timer during off-season which will help all players know the exact date for when the new Season will start over.
PTR Skill Rating
Now, let's move on to the Skill Rating system. Mercer explicitly stated that despite the disaster of the ranking system from the previous season, they will not be resetting everyone's Skill Rating (SR) as it'll just lead to further complications. Instead, they will use the player's SR rating from the previous season (which in this case, Season 2) as a point of reference for the upcoming season (Season 3).
*Note: This doesn't mean that your SR rating from previous season will be carried on to the new season. This just means that it'll be a point of reference for a new SR which will be discussed below.
PTR Skill Tier
One of the significant changes on the PTR today is the revamp of Skill Tier placement for the upcoming Season 3. Basically, as stated above, the player's previous SR will be the point of reference for his Tier on the next Season. Since they will not be resetting the players' Season 2 SR to give a fresh start for Season 3, what they have come up on mind, personally for me, is absolutely brilliant.
What they proposed is that, at the beginning of a new Season, players will have a slight reduction of SR Rating which means that for those that have close to even win/lose ratio, they will find a significant drop from their Tier. But fear because at the beginning of a new season, your SR gains will be increased significantly for a specific amount of matches. After the player has played a significant amount of games, the SR gains and losses will be set back to normal.
*Note: Based on Mercer's statement, it's safe to assume that the SR boost for the next season is bound to the amount of matches instead of the server time at the beginning of the Season.
Personally, I like the new changes on the PTR as it'll help balanced out the community's Skill Rating and Skill Tiers significantly. What do you think about the new SR and ST system? Do you think it's more balanced? Share your thoughts in the comments section down below!
